Mark C. Davis

Mark C. Davis is the branch chief for Aeronautics Projects at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Appointed in March 2024, he provides management and technical direction of the center’s aeronautics activities to ensure the effective and timely support of flight research projects. Additionally, he supports the center’s Aeronautics Research Director by working with and coordinating center efforts with various agency program and project offices.

Prior to his current role, Davis was NASA Armstrong’s Engineering Operations branch chief since 2017. From 2014 to 2019, he also served as the center’s Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) lead.

Since 1993, Davis worked as an aerodynamics team lead for the X-43A Hyper-X; supported the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft and Gulfstream III aerodynamics research test bed; joined the NASA Engineering Safety Committee (NESC) Flight Mechanics technical discipline team; served as Aeroscience Flight Test coordinator for the Orion Launch Abort System (LAS), supporting the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) group; and supported NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Hypersonic Experimentation Planning committee. As an aerodynamics engineer, Davis supported such projects as the F-104 Starfighter, SR-71 Blackbird, X-31 water tunnel testing, F-16XL Supersonic Laminar Flow Control Research Aircraft, F-15, Eclipse Tow Launch Demonstration project, and the X-43C demonstrator vehicle. He also worked as the deputy subproject program manager for the Transformational Tools and Technologies project.

Davis first came NASA Armstrong as a student engineer in 1990, helping to design and oversee building of the stick computer used in simulations. His internship continued the next couple years, during which he supported the X-29 Advanced Technology Demonstrator Aircraft and F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV).

Throughout his career, David received many awards and letters of appreciation, including a certificate of recognition from NASA’s Goddard Flight Research Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for his support of ARMD SBIR in 2017. Davis authored or co-authored five technical papers and three journal articles, including “X-43A Flight-Test-Determined Aerodynamic Force and Moment Characteristics at Mach 7.0” in 2008. From 2000 to 2010, he was a senior member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Davis earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering in 1993 from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California.